In March of 2016, we were happily living in the Mumbles just around the corner from my workshop and down the road from my favourite pub. We'd not long finished renovating our house which we loved, work was coming in and the little boy was due to start at the local school. All in all, we were feeling fortunate and content.

What we really needed was an all consuming project to make things more exciting.....

I was measuring up to build some fitted wardrobes for a local client and noticed a picture of a house on the wall. "That's a nice house" says I. "That was my childhood home" says the client. "It's been empty now for a while and needs a bit of work but we're looking to sell it, are you interested?" It turns out, my wife had coveted the house for a while. The client's sister felt likewise about ours so we did a kind of swap.

By June we had moved in to a musty old house with mould on the walls and a leaky roof and a large geological feature called the Nicholaston Hall Swallet. It does though have wonderful views, a fascinating history and lots of potential. So we set off into the unknown with my Haynes manual on restoring old buildings and plenty of enthusiasm.

The house has suffered from some well intentioned modifications over recent decades not least an impermeable coat of cement render and pvc double glazed window units to replace to lovely old wooden casement windows shown in the image at the top of the blog. Both of these are at odds with the way traditional buildings "live and breathe" and have contributed to its deterioration.

Our new neighbour's key piece of advice; "If ever the work is getting on top of you, sit back and take in the view"